Living In His Shadow

Chapter Seven

"Hey, Amanda, can I come in," my mom said knocking on my door.

"Yeah," I replied wondering what she wanted. My mom hardly ever comes in my room. She just stays in her room or in the living room.

"We need to talk," she said clenching her draw. She looked mad. And that seems a little common to most people, but my mom never got mad. She didn't care what happened, she just went along with it.

"What do we need to talk about mom," I asked.

She throw a pile of pictures on to my bed and stared at me. Her eyes were boring holes into my body as I looked at the pictures. They were all of Justin and me. When we went out to eat, when we went to the movies, when we walked up to his house together. There were even some of us hugging at the mall, and me getting in his car.

How could somebody do this? How could they just follow us around and take pictures. It's creepy. Do people not have anything else to do besides stalk us?

"Explain," my mom said crossing her arms over her chest. This was the first time she had gotten mad at me over something.

Well, there was really no point in lying to her now. There were pictures prooving that we had been together, and nothing I could say would change that. I wanted to dissappear. I wanted to be somewhere else.

"Justin and I have been togther for about a month now," I said looking her straight in the eye. I saw her face change for just a second, but then it quickly went back to boring holes in me. Her face was filled with hurt.

"Why didn't you tell me."

"Because I knew that you'd do this. I knew you'd make a huge deal out of it. And I knew you wouldn't let us stay together. And I knew you wouldn't keep it a secret from Alex, then he'd be pissed. And the two of you would double-team me, and make me feel even worse about this whole situation," I said back to her.

"So you've been lying to everyone now just so you could run off with some guy every night," she said spitting nails in my face.

"No. I lied, because I knew I couldn't trust you."

~*~ 

The moment after I said that, I kind of regreted it. I knew she would remember that and I knew she would be hurt, but I wanted to hurt her then. I wanted to make her feel bad for what she had said to me. I wanted her to get even more mad because she made me mad. I wanted her to feel bad for favoring Alex.

I ran out of my room, and down the steps. I had to get out of here, and away from my family. I was so tired of being treated like a child. I got into my midnight blue viper and started driving far away. I had been driving for about an hour when my phone went off. 

From Mom: I'm sorry. Please come back.

I turned my phone off and throw it in the glove box. I wasn't in the mood for her to guilt trip me. I wansn't in the mood for her at all. I had never felt this way towards her, but I had a good reason. She had always favored Alex. She had always chosen him over me, and now I was glad she felt bad for something she had done to me. I wasn't wanting to go back. I just wanted to see Justin.

I did a U-turn and went in the opposite direction as fast as I could.

I pulled into Justin's driveway at about eleven and went straight up to the door. There was an unfimiliar car in the driveway, but I just parked behind it. He probably just got a new car, and forgot to tell me.

I went in the front door, and heard laughter coming from the living room. I followed and found Justin sitting on the couch watching tv.

On his lap was a brown-haired girl who seemed to be having a lot of fun bouncing on his lap. She was giggling as he tickeled her sides, and kissed her neck, the exact same way he kissed mine. The exact same way he tickled me when he wanted something.

Justin and I made eye contact for a moment, but I just turned away and ran. I ran out the door, and down the steps to my car. I really wasn't expecting to come here and find out that he was with another girl.

"Wait Amanda, I'm sorry!," Justin yelled coming after me.

"No your not. I can't believe you would do this to me. I really thought we had something between us," I yelled back.

"We do Mandy. We have something great. I love you," he said using the nickname he had given me on our first date.

"Don't call me that," I growled and then before I even really thought about it, I kicked him in the shin.

Two people had betrayed me in the same night. I thought I could trust him, but I show up and he's with another girl. And my mom's supposed to be there for me no matter what but she pretty much called me a whore earlier.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to go somewhere far away, where nobody could find me. I wanted to be somewhere where nobody would know who I was.

I reached for my phone, and checked my messages. My mom had texted me four times, and Justin had texted me twice. 

~*~

I suddenly knew where I wanted to go. I turned the car around and started going south.

~*~ 

I arrived at the beach around three in the morning, and I paid for a five-day hotel room. 

I was going to be staying here for awhile.